Why Ireland needs to give its emigrants a say in the country No reason for the current policy of keeping them without voice

Ireland is a paradoxical place, hence all the poets. However, Irish paradoxes abound not just in literature but in a political sphere as well.

For example, in the same year that the Irish government launched ‘the Gathering’, an initiative to bring people back home for the holidays, it also encouraged mass emigration by repealing air tax and cutting social welfare. As youth unemployment hovers around 30%, and the Government openly promotes looking elsewhere for work, the current economic programme has been popularly described as ‘the Scattering.’

Ireland rejects more asylum seekers than most EU countries. In 2010, Ireland rejected 98.5% of all applications, the highest rejection rate of an EU country that year. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin also found that over the last 7 years Irish attitudes to immigration have become increasingly negative.

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Why-Ireland-needs-to-give-its-emigrants-a-say-in-the-country-234391...